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Future of MOOCs





























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The trend of free online courses have grown larger and larger since the beginning of the
concept when professors at Stanford University gained hundreds of thousand student to online
computer-science courses in 2011 (Kolowich, 2013). MOOCs have received a variety of
opinions of their impact on students, industry and educational systems, teachers and the pros and
cons of technology and globalization.
Impact on Students:
MOOCs have been criticized because of their low completion rate. Professors were asked
if students that completed their MOOC deserved to get course credit from their home institutions
and 72 percent of them said no (Kolowich, 2013).
Higher education has been criticized for its lack of access to students. MOOCs offer
access and affordability to students who otherwise would not be able to afford a college degree.
Professors believe that integrating MOOCs into the traditional system will drive down the cost of
earning a degree and will make college less expensive in general (Kolowich, 2013). Currently,
mostly professors offer certificates to students that have completed their MOOC but it is still
unclear on how employers view these.
Impact on Industry/Educational Systems and Structures (higher ed., gov controlled
education
Majority of schools that are currently using MOOCs as educational outreach do not have
plans to offer degrees through MOOCs (Booker, 2013). But there are some institutions that are
beginning to use the MOOC platform to offer degrees. Georgia Institute of Technology recently
announce that it plans to offer a masters degree in computer science through a service of
MOOCs, by utilizing a partnership with Udacity and AT&T who will provide funding and
recruiting tools. Georgia Techs plan is to offer the degree as a substantial discount that its other
degrees and also develop a MOOC platform with additional mentoring and support services for
students that are paying tuition (Booker, 2013). The future of MOOCs and education depends on
the acceptance of MOOCs within education and whether they will give diplomas for MOOC
students. Some professors believe that MOOCs should be integrated into the traditional
educational system of credit and degrees (Kolowich, 2013).
MOOC operators have increased competition between learning management systems
vendors such as Blackboard and Desire2Learn who have a long history of interface design and
data analytics (Booker, 2013). President of MIT Susan Hockfield stated, Online education is not
an enemy of residential education but an inspiring and liberating ally (Kolowich, 2013, pg 1).
Impact on Teachers
MOOCs allow teachers to supply their subject matter to a larger audience. A professor at
Princeton taught a small course on algorithms and created an online course using Coursera and
drew 80,000 students. This Princeton professor spent hundreds of hours preparing the material
and recording/videotaping his lectures. A professor typically spends 10 hours per week on
upkeep of their MOOC with interactions with students including discussion forums and email.
Professors also hope that participation in MOOCs will help to increase their visiability both
among colleague in their discipline and with media and the general public (Kolowich, 2013).


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MOOC platforms also allow professors to track the interactions of each student with
course material that allows them to see what methods and materials help students and which ones
students do not like. The idea is that professors will apply these tips to their traditional classroom.
But because of the amount of time spent developing their MOOC and maintaining it during the
course session, some professors felt that teaching a MOOC distracted them from their on-campus
duties (Kolowich, 2013). Moving forward, institutions are going to have to develop a protocol
for integrating faculty work on MOOCs into their faculty work flow.
Pros and Cons of tech and globalization
One of the main pros to the MOOC platform is the ability to reach large amounts of
students. Since MOOCs charge no tuition and are open to everyone with internet access, it has
been reviewed as a way to transform higher education and expand access to higher education.







References
Booker, E. (2013). Will MOOCs Massively Disrupt Higher Education? InformationWeek
Education. Retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/education/online-learning/will-
moocs-massively-disrupt-higher-educ/240160674
Kolowich, S. (2013). The Professors Who Make the MOOCs. The Chronicle of Higher
Education. Retrieved from http://chronicle.com/article/The-Professors-Behind-the-
MOOC/137905/#id=overview